Comments on: History Is (Re)Written By The Winners

By: ActiCons » History Is (Re)Written By The Winners

ActiCons » History Is (Re)Written By The Winners — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:13:00 +0000

[...] still featured on the award page! It’s kinda hard to win an award for fake ads. (Update: Ed Driscoll notes that the CLIO website has removed the ads from the web page. I did, however, keep a [...]

By: jambosana

jambosana — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:11:45 +0000

Yup. Without getting into ghoulish casualty counting a Nanking – Hiroshima comparison might have been more controversial or, at the very least, more thought provoking.

By: Ed Driscoll

Ed Driscoll — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:12:15 +0000

Jambosana,

That’s how I took it as well. As I mentioned in the new video (see link directly above your comment) I assumed that was Ogilvy’s shot at England in general, not GWB or the GWOT.

Their other two ads, on the other hand…

By: jambosana

jambosana — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:00:56 +0000

I’m not sure if the George vs. Mohammed stats are meant to be a comment upon attitudes towards George W. Bush. George is also the name of England’s patron saint.

By: Ed Driscoll » New Silicon Graffiti Video: “21st Century Schizoid Mad Men”

Wed, 27 May 2009 17:55:00 +0000

[...] Ogilvy & Mather’s Revisionist History Channel Ads. [...]

By: Jack Olson

Jack Olson — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:11:33 +0000

William, I wrote to four Ogilvy & Mather clients to point out the anti-American libels their ad agency produced and to ask whether they want to be represented by such a company. I suppose I’ll get form letter replies, if any. Yet, I tried to contact the History Channel and AETN about the Ogilvy libels and their part in them. You can’t do it. They don’t publish their mailing address. Nor does a search of their website offer any comment at all on the the Ogilvy libels, not even the complaints of trademark infringement which provoked their cease-and-desist demands. Nor does the Ogilvy website say anything about it, not even to mention they won a Clio award for it. Now that the Clio website has removed it from their website, too, what we’re seeing is institutions trying to airbrush an embarrassing episode out of their history. It’s futile. In the end, the liar deceives only himself.

By: William

William — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:44:11 +0000

As an alumnus of O&M, I am horrified to see this. Horrified and ashamed. As an associate of the late David Ogilvy, I know he too would be ashamed. His motto for the firm as “Gentlemen with brains” (before the era of gender-correctness). There is not much of either in these concepts.

That said, please realize that agencies generally are not innocent of creating ads that never run or run once in some obscure medium, often paid for by the agency, in order to submit them as eligible for ad awards.

When the ads become notorious, no one wants to ‘fess to having anything to do with them. Only if they can anonymously mount the awards rostrum, collect their award and post it on their wall or resume without full details, do they come out in the open.

Also, the creative ad community is infamous for harboring and fostering left-wing views, encouraged by peer pressures. Many years ago, when I was a cub and espoused a conservative point of view, I was told by the head of the art department (not O&M) that I might as well leave the business since conservatives can’t be “creative.”

I went on to win many of these same awards, legitimately, and apolitically.

David, I cry for you.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 23 May 2009 05:15:04 +0000

The ads write themselves.

Find a number for the civilians killed in their Dresden homes, then compare that, in Hitler’s favour, to the Blitz.

Maybe if they could figure out a way to insult Americans without defending brutal, militarist, colonial dictators in the process, they could be forgiven. After all, insulting Americans is like breathing, right? They do it in your sleep. They can’t help being anti-American. They don’t know anyone who’s not.

But it wouldn’t occur to them that they’re whitewashing the record of some brutal dictators, too.

By: DM-B

DM-B — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:01:34 +0000

Just for starters:

Per ADWEEK, 1/9/09 – “The agency’s client list includes IBM, American Express, Kodak, Unilever, Kraft Foods, Lenovo and Morgan Stanley…”

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i7b57851228481ca5445cfc07adfb6cb9

By: EdGi

EdGi — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:17:48 +0000

grackle is right – O&M would never allow false psywar propaganda against our enemies to be attributed to O&M, and we need to go to their clients over allowing false anti-American psywar propaganda by our enemies. Anyone in the business knows the S. Africa office dodge is BS.